HS Sophomore interested in Stanford, NU, Princeton

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Hello!~ I'm a sophomore, and I already have my sights set on Northwestern Class of 2017 but I would be estatic to attend Stanford or Princeton! Please chance me/ or tell me how I can become a better candidate for these amazing schools!</p>

<p>GPA: 4.0 (Probably going to be extremely close to that senior year)
Current rank: 3/520. I'm going for 1st or 2nd.
PSAT score this year: 215 - 99th percentile (67 - CR, 69 - Math, 79 - Writing)
Explores Test (8th grade) - 25/25
PLAN Test (10th grade) - 30/32</p>

<p>AP classes this year: European History AP and Music Theory AP
AP classes for junior year: English Language, Biology, US History, Psychology, Human World Geography, Statistics, Spanish Language
Schedule for senior year: English Literature AP, Chemistry AP, Physics AP, Government/Economics AP, AP Calc AB, Lifetime Wellness/Personal Finance, Spanish Literature AP</p>

<p>ECs: *** NOTE: if it says (11, 12) that means I'm going to continue in this activity)
- Forensics (Speech, Drama, & Debate) - (7,8,9,10, 11, 12) - Won finalist in D.I., Solo Acting, TV Broadcast, and Declamation. May compete in National Qualifiers this year, and hopefully will go to Nationals junior and/or senior year
- Literary Magazine (10, 11, 12) (Prose Editor - 10) (Will most likely be Editor in chief junior and/or senior year)
- Model United Nations (7,8,9,10) - won Outstanding Memorial in ICJ
- Orchestra, Cello (Best youth symphony in my state) - (10, 11, 12)
- Piano (K-12) - I earn merit scholarships offered at my local Top 20 national university's music school
- Worship Team at my church (7,8,9,10,11,12 eventually) - Keyboard section leader
- Student Council Class Representative (8,9,10,11,12) (Freshman secretary) (Hopefully Junior President/VP and Senior Class president)
- My city's Youth Leadership Program (picks only 20 sophomores and juniors out of over 80 applicants, I am one of the only 2 sophomores in my class this year)
- Mu Alpha Theta (10,11,12)
- National Honors Society (11,12) ~ can't join till junior
- Spanish Honors Society (11,12) ~ "
- English Honors Society (11,12) ~ "</p>

<p>Achievements:
- National Spanish Exam Gold Medalist - (9, 10? 11? - haven't actually done the test for this year yet ;) )
- Mid-State Jr. and Sr. High Orchestras (8,9,10,11,12)
* Not that this counts, but in 7th grade, I was State Finalist in the National Geography Bee
* This doesn't either, but in 8th grade, I went to National Junior Forensics League National Tournament and placed 6th in Student Congress</p>

<p>Community Service: almost 500 total hours ~
- 3 one-week mission trips to Mexico with my church youth group (around 270 hours)
- Volunteer 2 hours/week at an inclusive preschool with specially-developing children who have Down's Syndrome, autism, and other various disorders (by senior year that'll be about 200 hours)
- Church youth group community service events coordinator
- Mu Alpha Theta and will eventually be in National Honors Society</p>

<p>Personal strengths/passions: Writing, Public Speaking, Instrumental music</p>

<p>Sorry...it's a lot to read, but I wanted to make sure that it was obvious what kind of candidate I would eventually be. Please chance me for the following schools:</p>

<ul>
<li>Stanford</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>Princeton</li>
<li>Columbia</li>
<li>University of Southern California</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania</li>
<li>Vanderbilt</li>
</ul>

2

<p>Also forgot to put this</p>

<p>State: Tennessee
School: Public High School
Income bracket: Over $100,000
Race: Asian
Gender: Female
Hooks: Half first-generation college (although this probably doesn’t work with colleges, haha) my mom didn’t go to college</p>

3

<p>USC very likely (I’d like to say “almost certainly” but I try not to go for absolutes when chancing) and I think you have a fairly good shot at UPenn too. (Any schools I’m not mentioning here are schools where I’m unfamiliar with their admissions statistics and policy.)</p>

<p>Stanford/Princeton/Columbia: academically you’re qualified for all of these. Assuming you score in the 2300+ range (I think this is very likely; you’re probably one of those high-powered kids that will do very well) or a 35/36 on the ACT, your grades and scores won’t keep you out.</p>

<p>One thing, however, that I’ve heard said from a Stanford adcom member: “We want well-lopsided kids, not well-rounded kids”. (I may be paraphrasing slightly.) You’re clearly a high performer who’s very involved in your school and community, but you have two years to gain an edge in developing a significant extracurricular that will set you apart from an applicant pool that will have very similar qualifications as you at the top schools. If there’s one thing about you that is unusual and defining (“I discovered a star”, “I started a web design firm at sixteen”, “I painted several murals for local elementary schools”) it’ll help. Adcoms will think of you as the astronomer kid, or the entrepreneurial kid, or the community artist kid.</p>

<p>Right now you have an impressive resume, but the list of your achievements and extracurriculars would be stronger if narrowed and focused slightly into one or two areas of intense interest, so you can brand yourself, so to speak, in those ways, and people reading your application can come away with a very clear image of who you are and how you would contribute to intellectual diversity on campus.</p>

<p>(Check out Cal Newport’s “Study Hacks” blog and read his articles on the failed-simulation effect. He might explain some of these ideas better than I can.)</p>

4

<p>Thank you so much! I truly appreciate it! I will definitely take your advice to heart. I’m planning to truly focus my energy into becoming a national champion in Forensics, and then somehow applying writing/public speaking to my volunteer work. The place where I volunteer at is very small, and I think it would look fabulous to admissions officers if I expand that place so that it grows into something very huge and impacting on the community! :)</p>

5

<p>Does anyone know about Vanderbilt and Northwestern’s admission systems and would be able to give me advice? That would be so nice!</p>

6

<p>Definitely would be able to get into many of those colleges, you are very well qualified with good grades and ECs.
My brother goes to Vanderbilt and he had similar stats to you. So you definitely have a good chance there.
Best of Luck to you!!!</p>

<p>chance me back please</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1074681-chance-me-brown.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/brown-university/1074681-chance-me-brown.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

7

<p>Like I was saying earlier today… you are pretty much almost guaranteed to get into Vandy. You have pretty impressive stats for a sophmore :)</p>

8

<p>right now everything looks good. There is a difference between rank 3 and rank 1, as top colleges like vals. It seems like more people play piano as an EC than sports these days, just an observation. Another thing I noticed was that some of your junior year Ap’s are the easier ones and then your harder ones are all senior year. Just wondering wats up? maybe you switch a couple for junior year to balance things out. Like switching calc and physics for bio and stats. colleges might notice the difference in schedule difficulty, they might not, who knows. Just get your SAT’s/ACT’s down and don’t forget about SAT II’s and junior grades most important and then a little bit of luck for those top schools and you have a good chance. It sucks though that every year that goes by, colleges get so much more competitive. I wonder if admissions rate will be down to 3% or less by the year 2020?</p>

9

<p>I moved most of my harder classes to senior year because I’m planning to do early action and I wanted my GPA to be as highest as possible (meaning that I would ensure good grades because I was taking the easier courses ahead of time). Senior year, my courses would be harder but it wouldn’t matter as much if I didn’t make a high A because it wouldn’t be calculated into the GPA in time for college apps. Is this a bad decision I’m making? My junior and senior year schedules are not set in stone, and I can still rearrange them.</p>

<p>And, yet still, does anyone have any knowledge about my chances for Northwestern? :)</p>

10

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<p>What colleges want are good grades in challenging courses.</p>

11

<p>AP classes this year: European History AP and Music Theory AP
AP classes for junior year: English Language, Biology, US History, Psychology, Human World Geography, Statistics, Spanish Language
Schedule for senior year: English Literature AP, Chemistry AP, Physics AP, Government/Economics AP, AP Calc AB, Lifetime Wellness/Personal Finance, Spanish Literature AP
Try to survive your course load first.
Other than that, you are looking pretty good.</p>